What were the political issues that affected the world between 1945 and 1990?
Many political issues affected the world during the time between 1945 and 1990. Tensions between countries due to different ideals and beliefs created an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear among people. The existence of nuclear weapons of mass destruction added to this imbalance in the peace keeping process.
Communism and Capitalism were the two most powerful types of government during 1945 and 1990. Both types of governments had their pros and cons, and representatives of both governments argued that their government style was their best because it created a more fair treatment of individuals and gave more rights to people. This difference in beliefs caused the world to be more wary of the capabilities of greater countries in causing severe damage during a war. The Soviet Union was a Communist country which insisted that Capitalism was not the right way of governing a country because instead of creating equalities among people, it divided people in classes. They claimed that only a few people lived well off the system, and most people lived in poverty. The corporation owners and the rich were the ones benefiting from a Capitalist government. Capitalism claimed that Communism was not the way to go because Capitalism also believed in Democracy where people could choose their own leaders rather than have a dictatorship type of government.
As if the differences in beliefs were not enough to create an atmosphere of fear among the world, the Soviet Union started to get to close to the United States around 1962 when they started supplying Cuba with armament. Nuclear weapons with the capability of reaching deep into the United States were suspected to be there. President Kennedy immediately ordered its personnel responsible for homeland security to start monitoring these shipments. The Soviet Union claimed that these shipments were carried with the purpose of giving Cuba a form of defending itself against an attack, something which the United States government didn’t believe because at first, the Soviets had said that it had no needs of shipping weapons abroad the Soviet Union, and that the mere fact of having weapons in the Soviet Union was enough for their country to carry an attack. Spies were assigned to gather information of the other countries intelligence to have an advantage over the other in case a war broke up in the world.
These tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union did not help the world achieve a sense of peace which was much needed during that time period. Mr. George Keenan suggested in 1967 that a certain set of rules be applied to the people responsible for dealing with Russians. It was very hard to deal with Russians because they were very sensitive on what was said in diplomatic meetings. The slightest indication of dominance from the part of the United States would make them not trust the representatives any longer. Even worse, they didn’t trust any one in the first place. They always considered any country as the enemy, and were suspicious of them at [next page]